Live the Live ™

Boy, things change in a heartbeat ’round here…

We made it to Queenstown. Thank God the weather finally co-operated once we got out of Haast, and we actually saw some freakin’ sunshine on the way here to the Canyons Lodge.

Check this out…the photos do not exaggerate, and we have this place to ourselves, at least for now!

http://www.thecanyonslodge.com

We took what’s called the Crowns Pass down to Queenstown and we got some amazing video and photos of our descent into the Qtown area. It was described by a buddy of ours as an airplane landing into Queenstown, and that’s not far from the truth!

The owners of the lodge here, Andy and Mel, are really cool, and we’ve settled in nicely. We’ve had some drinks with them and discussed what we thought was our itinerary, only to find out how quickly and easily things change.

First of all, my rafting trip has been moved. The severe rain that they’ve had in this area actually shut down rafting for today, and they told me they wouldn’t know if they were rafting tomorrow morning until the last minute. So the plan was for me to show up and see what happens.

Well…looks now like I will be rafting another day. The reason is that we are taking a helicopter ride to Milford Sound, which includes cruising over the sound, as well as landing on a freaking glacier. (Yes, I was totally talked into this!)

We are no longer doing a 6-hour bus, then boat, then plane trip back…and instead are doing an all-encompassing helicopter ride for about 2 1/2 hours. (If I knew my Mom was reading this blog, you can bet your ass I wouldn’t be writing it!)

Anyway…more later…but we’re here…and that’s a major accomplishment!

OK…caught up for now…

If you’re able to follow a map of the western coast of New Zealand, you’ll see that Haast is sort of the last town along the coast before the road heading south to Queenstown turns inward toward the mountains. That’s where we are right now…having a snack before our journey continues. We’ve got about half of our trip left…hoping that the weather, at least, gets better.

It has been raining…and raining hard, pretty much our entire trip since we left this morning about 3 1/2 hours ago. We’ve seen no glaciers anywhere…no beautiful views of famous lakes…nothing but rain and fog.

I’ve found a good way to a make the journey a little bit less stressful: I followed a big tour bus. Not only does this guy know the roads far better than I ever will, but I can determine my own course of action in my brick-of-a rental car by watching what he does ahead of me. It worked really well for most of the trip until the bus turned off for a scenic stop. (Kind of a joke since you can’t see anything…but they did have restrooms there, too.)